The present invention relates to wireless communication networks, and more particularly to a protocol for establishing a dynamic ad-hoc wireless network connection.
Wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks are being increasingly used to exchange data. One known Wi-Fi standard, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) or Wi-Fi Simple Configuration (WSC), is a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard that defines the communication modes and the associated configuration protocols for an infrastructure WLAN.
There are three logical components in an infrastructure WSC network, namely a registrar, an access point (AP), and an enrollee. Referring to FIG. 1A, to establish a wireless communications link with legacy AP 10, WSC client 12 first seeks to acquire network credentials from external registrar 14 using an 802.11 network. Subsequently, WSC client 12 establishes a link to legacy AP 10 using the network credentials that WSC client 12 has acquired from external registrar 14.
Referring to FIG. 1B, AP 20 is shown as having an embedded registrar. To establish a communications link with AP 20, WSC client 22 first seeks to acquire network credentials from AP 20's embedded registrar over an 802.11 infrastructure network. Subsequently, using the acquired network credentials, WSC client 22 wirelessly connects to AP 20.
Referring to FIG. 1C, to establish a communications link with WSC AP 30, WSC client 32 first seeks to acquire network credentials using an extended authentication protocol (EAP) via WSC AP 30. WSC AP 30 relays the WSC client 32's EAP message to registrar 34 using a Universal Plug and Play (UpnP) protocol. Next, using the acquired network credentials supplied by registrar 34, WSC client 32 establishes a communications link with WSC AP 30. WSC and its communication protocols are described, for example, in Wi-Fi Simple Configuration Specification, Version 1.0a, Feb. 10, 2006, by Wi-Fi Simple Configuration Working Group in the Wi-Fi Alliance.
These WSC configurations do not contain provisions for establishing and maintaining dynamic ad-hoc wireless local area networks, but instead focus on the infrastructure mode of WLAN operation. In addition, each assumes that a registrar is always available to service requests while a network is being configured and therefore they do not include a power-saving feature whereby network nodes can minimize power consumption before establishing a network connection. Given the transient nature of ad-hoc wireless networks, many wireless devices spend a substantial amount of time without a network connection. Thus, it would be desirable to enable such devices to conserve power while waiting to establish a network connection. Further, it would also be desirable to maintain a high degree of networking availability while power is being conserved.